


The Magic Gene

by Mikey_3_jm



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: And just a dash of magic usage, But also a bit like absentee parents, Established Cassandra Cillian/Jacob "Jake" Stone, Eve Baird and Flynn Carson being relationship goals, F/M, Feels, Immortality, Jenkins being a real homie, Romance, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:47:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25418689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikey_3_jm/pseuds/Mikey_3_jm
Summary: Lacey has always been moved around. Her whole life she has been moved from place to place. Her parents never had stable jobs. Even with her own job, she has had to move frequently. It all changes the day she receives the letter in the mail. The magical golden letter change her life. She discovers an entire world she's never imagined could even exist.
Relationships: Cassandra Cillian/Jacob "Jake" Stone, Eve Baird/Flynn Carsen, Ezekiel Jones/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

Another grueling day of work. Sometimes I wonder if any of it is really worth it. I sighed as I stuck my little key into the mailbox, and got it stuck. Groaning, I yanked it out, managing to swing my door open and allow all of my mail to fall on the floor. I swiftly gathered it up and slammed my mailbox shut, locking it carefully, making sure the key didn't get stuck again.  
"Hello empty apartment that I hate." The only sound that replied to me was the humming of the fridge and the stupid clicking of the garbage disposal that doesn't work right. I threw my work bag on top of my shoes and set the mail on my table. I changed into a more comfortable pair of leggings and a long sleeve shirt before sifting through it. I picked up a particularly interesting piece with gold lettering and no return address. As soon as I had taken the single piece of paper out, letters started appearing on the page.  
"Your presence has been requested at the metropolitan library. You have been selected for a prestigious position." I shrugged.  
"It's not like I have anything to lose. I already lost the job I've had for years." I grabbed my purse and my keys along with the letter and left my shitbox of an apartment. I just didn't know I would never see it again.


	2. Chapter 1

"Hello?" This was the room the lady at the front desk had told me to come to. It was empty and the stacks of books towered above my head. A bookshelf moved at the other end of the room and a man in a suit stepped out. "Hi, I received this letter in the mail and I was told to come here. Can you help me?"   
"Step through this door, please." I stepped behind the shelf into a little white elevator. He shut the door behind me. The lights in the corners flashed as the elevator went down, down, down. When the doors opened, an enormous room spread before me. It was physically impossible for a place this big to exist.  
"Hey, Baird, do you know where-" A man with black hair, tan skin, and an adorable Australian accent walked in front of the steps I was standing at the top of. Hold on, he wasn't much older than me, if he was any older than me. He was super young. "Uh, Colonel Baird?"   
"What is it, Ezekiel?" A tall blonde woman, who sounded irritated, walked out of the stacks and stopped when she saw me. "How did you get in here?"  
"I showed them this letter." I held my letter in front of me, walking down the stairs slowly and because I'm me, I tripped and fell halfway down. "Can we please forget that happened?" I asked them. The blonde woman took my letter from me and read it.  
"Another Librarian?" She whispered to the man.  
"Can't be." He furrowed his eyebrows.  
"If you don't mind me asking, what did you do before you received this letter?" She asked me.  
"I'm an author but I work for a publishing company. They make me move so I can scope out new writers in different cities. I was fired today." She stood and hummed. The man helped me to my feet as she whirled around and threw something at me. I threw my hands up and it stopped in midair. The knife fell to the floor with a clatter.  
"I never imagined." She breathed.  
"A couple years ago. I was sitting in my living room and I just felt a wave of something go through me. Next morning, I could move things with my mind." I explained, rubbing my arm.  
"You must have a magic gene somewhere in you." I shook my head.  
"Magic doesn't exist. There's a real explanation for this. There has to be." She chuckled.   
"Let's show you to the others." They led me through the stack and into a small room with a staircase winding up one wall of the circular office into a mini library. A red haired woman and another man with dark hair and a southern accent were sitting at a table in the middle arguing. An older gentleman with kind eyes and silver hair was discussing a map with another man next to a brown globe. Once we entered the room all eyes turned towards me.  
"Eve." The man that was talking to the older man said her name slowly. He had a ridiculous suit on. "Who is this?" He coughed after his sentence. The woman next to me spoke.  
"This is the library's choice. The one it has been hinting at for weeks." Everyone's eyes flicked to the Australian man next to me, Ezekiel.  
"Congratulations, Mr. Jones." The silver haired man spoke up. His voice was deep and resonating, earning my respect instantly. "It seems you are the first of your class to receive your guardian. Although, to be fair, Mr. Stone probably won't need one, since he was trained in Shangri-La." He closed the book he had been thumbing through and set it on the center table.  
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" I interjected as everyone started speaking at once.  
"How rude of us. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Flynn Carson. The Librarian, well the first in this room." The man in the funny suit announced his name, leaning on the globe next to him.  
"I am Cassandra Killian. I'm kind of the math and science expert around here." The red haired girl smiled and wrung her hands together.  
"Jacob Stone. Art history and architecture expert. Also fluent in more languages than you could probably name off the top of your head." The man with the southern accent spoke. His voice was gruff, a slight accent hinting he had grown up in the south.  
"I'm Eve Baird. I was the first guardian. I'll be more than happy to show you some of the ropes around here." The blonde woman smiled at me. She immediately made me feel at home here.  
"And I'm Ezekiel Jones. I'm the person you're supposed to be guarding. I'm also the greatest thief in the world and resident technology expert." He raised an eyebrow. "You are?"  
"I'm Lacey Cal. I've worked in publishing my whole life but I also write fiction. I've moved addresses about 17 times in my life. I got fired from the job I've had since I got out of high school today." Eve smirked as she walked over to stand across the room from me.  
"And she can do this." She threw several objects at me, all of them stopping midair. "When magic got loose a couple years back, her DNA was affected. She has a magic gene. The thing that we were only hypothetically talking about existing. With some training, she could definitely fit in here." She explained to everyone else. "Can we spar for just a second? I want to see if you have it in you to fight bad people that we might have to." She squared up in front of me.  
"Go!" Flynn yelled and she swung at me with her fist. I ducked under it while turning so my back was against her chest and grabbed her arm, pulling her over my shoulder so she could land on her back. She wheezed as she laid on the ground, catching her breath.  
"Who are you?" Ezekiel asked.  
"I grew up with brothers that were way older than me. They all joined the military. They showed me some moves they had learned." I shrugged. "And I took classes for ten years for martial arts. After I got my, um, gift, I learned to control it and even started combining it with my physical skills."  
"Thanks for the warning." Eve groaned as Flynn helped her up.  
"Jones, why don't you take your guardian here and tell her all about this." The silver haired man gestured to the room.  
"Will do, Jenkins." He smiled at me, his cheekbones popping out. "Come with me. It's time for you to learn about the library."


	3. Chapter 2

"Here's the run down. The library doesn't exist on the same level of reality that our world does. It's kind of like it's just laying next to it. The library was created to keep all the magical items away from the world, so they would be safe. Kind of like a museum that nobody knows about." We sat in a room full of chairs. All kinds of chairs. "Flynn was the Librarian way before any of us. The Serpent Brotherhood started killing off people who were selected so we helped them stop the bad guys and we joined forevermore. Flynn and Baird bound themselves to the Library and became immortal so the rest of us needed guardians. Well, I did. Stone kind of became Cassandra's guardian when they started dating."  
"So I'm supposed to be guarding you, but from what?" I asked. He smiled.  
"From the bad guys." I rolled my eyes.  
"Thanks, that cleared everything up." I snapped sarcastically.  
"I think you're going to like it here. A lot." He laughed. It was quiet for a moment before I caught him staring at me as I fiddled with my waist length hair, even in its braid, it reached my lower back. "What else can you do with your, ya know." I laughed softly and swept my thick braid back over my shoulder.  
"Well, I can block out sound. I can create force fields. I can lift things and sometimes, with a lot of concentration, I can manipulate people's thoughts. I can force them to say something. I can make you feel like there's a spider crawling on you." I smiled at him.  
"That's really cool." I waved my hand and invisible wisps of air flowed down his arm. I watched him shiver. I didn't tell him, that my magic can flow through your brain and tell me what you're thinking. It can read thoughts. What I read in him, when he talked about Cassandra and Jacob, was jealousy.  
"It seems like it's about dinner time and I ordered some pizzas about a half hour ago. I'm sure Jenkins can explain if you have any more questions." He popped up and walked out of the room full of chairs. I followed him quickly, not wanting to get lost.  
"Jones, what have we told you about ordering pizzas to the annex?" Eve scolded him as she placed a stack of pizzas on the center table. I waved my hand at my side and a map she almost covered in grease flew onto the floor. She glanced at the map and then at my fingers before smiling gratefully.  
"Nobody else was going to get dinner." He shrugged as he opened the top box and took a slice out, chewing it smugly.   
"Ezekiel!" Cassandra ran into the room squealing. She stopped in front of me and grabbed my arms. "I am so excited to have another girl here." She smiled at me. We were about the same height but I was not as thin and delicate as she was. Her style was cute, a lot of florals and bright colors. I had an overall good feeling about her. She made me warm inside.  
"Hey, I'm here." Eve commented. Cassandra frowned and looked at her.  
"I can't borrow your clothes. You're too tall." She paused and furrowed her brow. "And you wear jumpsuits a lot." Eve shrugged and walked away, snatching a piece of pizza from the box on her way out.  
"Is that food I smell?" Jacob walked in, greeting Cassandra with a kiss on her temple. I smirked at her, raising my eyebrow but flinching when I felt a pang of jealousy from Ezekiel.  
"What's wrong?" I glanced at him when Cassandra asked me but quickly looked at her when his eyes found mine.  
"Nothing. Fit as a peach." She dropped my wrists and went to get her own slice of pizza. I looked down at the floor.   
"Aren't you hungry?" Stone questioned as he leaned against the table. I lifted one finger slightly to analyze his emotions. He was genuine in his concern but he didn't really trust me.  
"Yeah. I was waiting for the rest of you to grab a piece." I ran a hand over my hair and walked over to the box, extracting a slice for myself. I whipped my head around to see Ezekiel staring at me with piercing eyes. I blinked once before biting into my pizza. It only took a sweep of my magic to tell me that he was analyzing me, sizing me up in order to see of I was trustworthy. I was invading their thoughts, obviously, trust isn't a thing I believe in anymore.  
"So are you just going to stare at her or are you finally gonna-" Ezekiel leaped forward to cover Flynn's mouth before he could finish his sentence.   
"I'm not staring." He said. Flynn raised an eyebrow and looked at me.  
"Tell that to the holes burned in her head." He pushed past Ezekiel. "I have a mission for you." We all gathered around him. "In a small town in Minnesota, three people have been hospitalized with the same symptoms. A ring around their heads and massive headaches. We have a few theories but none that quite fit all the way. We want you four to go and investigate. We're going to keep up the hunt for what could be causing this." He walked over to the globe next to the closet and hooked the jumper cables to the door and to the globe. He opened it up and I watched as blue sparks flew from the mechanism inside.  
"We're going through the closet?" I asked skeptically. Flynn finished hooking it up to the door and opened them. Light filled the entire door frame.  
"This is the back door. We managed to mix magic and science to create a sort of portal device. Once you step through, you'll be in Minnesota." He explained. "Hurry before another poor soul comes down with the sickness." He looked to the side and giggled at his own joke. I watched as the other four stepped through the door. "You'll be fine. Let them do the work. All you have to do is protect Ezekiel." I nodded and swallowed my fear before stepping through the door after them.


	4. Chapter 3

"I don't know what happened. I started having headaches and they got worse by the days. I passed out and woke up here with this burn around my head." The first victim managed to croak out his statement. I smiled at him and squeezed his hand.  
"Thank you. Get well soon." He nodded before closing his eyes to go back to sleep. I pushed Ezekiel out of the room and back into the hallway before he could snatch anything up for himself. Stone and Cassandra were waiting for us.  
"What did you guys get?" Cassandra asked, glancing at Ezekiel who was not really paying attention.  
"He said he had headaches that got worse over the days and then he passed out and woke up with a burn around his head. Shaped like a really ugly crown." I grabbed Ezekiel's shoulder when he tried to walk away and turned him back towards the group. "Will you stop?" Jacob and Cassandra stifled laughs.  
"We got the same stories." I sighed and ran my hand down my face.  
"What do we do now?" I asked them. I didn't have a clue where to start on this.  
"We go back to the annex and ask Flynn and Jenkins what it could be." I followed the three of them back to the door we had come through.  
"Oh good, you're back. We've been doing some research and-" Flynn looked at me. "Oh hey, how's you're first day going?" I furrowed my brows in confusion.  
"Good?" It sounded more like a question.  
"That's fantastic." He looked down at the book in front of him. "Anyway, I think we found what could have inflicted this. What did the patients say?" He spoke very quickly and I found it hard to keep up with him.  
"They started having headaches that got worse and then they would pass out only to wake up in the hospital with a weird burn around their heads." Cassandra recounted for him.  
"Who here has heard of the Monkey King?" Flynn looked at all of us.  
"I trained under a monkey king at Shangri-la." Stone offered. Flynn shook his head.  
"Not the same one. Sun Wukong the monkey king. He began as a stone that the wind shaped into a monkey and was supernaturally brought to life. He led a tribe of monkeys in the mountains but eventually came to fear his own mortality. He actually did a lot to try to become immortal. He tried to erase his name and the names of all his monkeys from the books of Life and Death. He gave himself a title that made him an equal to heaven after he got angry that the gods gave him a lowly title. Then the gods made him a guardian of a heavenly peach garden but then held a banquet and didn't invite him which in turn made him steal items that could grant immortality and eat them. He was eventually trapped under a mountain because he couldn't be controlled." He rambled. At some point Eve had walked in and folded her arms while watching him talk.  
"That's a good story but what does it have to do with headaches?" Stone was growing impatient.   
"Ah, that's exactly what I said when Jenkins showed me this book. But then, we found this." He pulled another book out from under the first one and flipped a few pages. "The gods forged a trap of sorts to try to control Sun Wukong. It's a headband that can grow tighter and tighter and cause immense pain when chanted to correctly." He looked up and smiled at each one of us. "Obviously someone has unearthed the headband and is using it to control people. We just have to find a commonality between the victims."  
"Are you done then?" Eve said, an eyebrow raised.  
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. You guys are good, that's all I've got for you." We sighed and turned around to go back through the door.  
"How the heck are we supposed to find someone controlling people with an invisible headband?" Stone sounded frustrated as we walked through the streets near the hospital.  
"I can read brain waves. I might be able to find them but it takes a lot of energy which is why I don't do it often." I told them, quickly covering for myself when I revealed I could read minds.  
"Then do it sparingly." Jones offered.   
"Okay so how were all the victims connected?" Cassandra laced her fingers together as she tried to think.  
"They all worked for the same company. The only big company in town. They make different flavors of potato chips. They all worked in the office building. Maybe we should start there." I offered.  
"In the clipping book." Stone snapped. "There was a clipping of a guy who got promoted each time one of the victims got sick. I'll bet anything that's our guy." We took off towards the office building of the potato chip company.  
"Hi, we'd like to see Mr. Vasqez." Cassandra said to the secretary. She glanced up at us.  
"I'm afraid he is very busy today and will not be taking visitors." She looked back to her computer. Stone leaned over.  
"It's okay. We're Librarians." I felt a tingle in the air, magic. The secretary smiled.  
"Of course. Right this way please." She gestured towards the closed wooden door. It was all I could do not to let my mouth hang open in shock.   
"So what do I owe the pleasure of visiting with the four Librarians? I've been wanting to talk to you for a while." Mr. Vasquez was a tall, handsome man. He had a short beard covering his jaw and silky black hair on top of his head. He rounded the desk to sit on the edge of it. I squinted my eyes and let my magic flow through his head. He was nervous. He didn't really know what he was doing because he was so new at the job. I flipped through his memories. I was disappointed when I found he knew nothing of the victims. The rest of the meeting was uneventful, the man knew absolutely nothing. There was no way her had the headband.  
"Well it was great meeting with you. I do hope you keep what I said in mind." He shook each of our hands as we went to leave. I reached for the door handle, jumping back in surprise when it opened. A woman walked in, short black hair reaching her shoulder and a pretty face.  
"Oh, hello." I looked into her mind.  
"This is my fiancee, Jade." Mr. Vasquez kissed her cheek as she stepped further into the room. My eyes widened.  
"We really should be leaving. It was lovely to meet you." I spoke up before we could get further drawn into the conversation. "Goodbye now." I ushered the other three out the door and into the elevator before they could ask questions.  
"Um, what was that?" I splayed a hand over my stomach to calm myself before answering Ezekiel's question.  
"She's guilty. She used the headband to help her fiance get promoted. She has the headband." I managed to calm my breathing. "It's in her apartment." We rushed to her place and Ezekiel picked the lock quickly.  
"I found it." I pulled the metal band out of her sock drawer. "I thought it was invisible." I mumbled to myself.  
"It can be." I whirled around and clutched it to my chest. Jade stood there with a smirk. "Just like there is a chant for it to tighten, there is a chant for it to become invisible." She widened her eyes slightly and began speaking in a different language. The band clamped onto my wrist and began tightening. I could feel it crushing my bones. The first crack tore a scream from my lungs and my eyes began watering. The other three rushed into the room and Stone landed a kick to Jade's head.  
"We have to get her back to Jenkins." Jones knelt next to me. Cassandra dialed someone on her phone.  
"We need a door. Now." She left no room for argument and the closet door glowed a bright blue. I could barely stay awake as they dragged me through, flattening me out on the annex floor.  
"I have the reverse enchantment right here." Jenkins held a book and began reading from it. The band loosened and went back to its original form. I used my magic to knit my bone back together.  
"Please tell me it won't be like that every time." I groaned, still laying on the hard floor.  
"I wish I could." I sighed at Eve's words.  
"Oh goodness."


	5. Chapter 4

"Eve!" My voice echoed down the stacks of books. I held my hands in front of me in a defensive position. The knife came out of nowhere and I barely had time to turn before it lodged itself in my face. I raised my fingers to feel the small cut across my cheekbone, blood glistening on my fingertips when I pulled them away. "That's not funny." She smirked at me.  
"You fight with a military style similar to my own. I know that's because of your brothers but you have poor reaction skills and aren't very good at defense." I folded my arms across my chest, feeling the skin on my cheek knit back together.  
"Then we should be training in the sparring room, not in the library." I flicked a piece of hair out of my face, my braid swaying with the motion. She eyed my long hair, her own blonde hair just brushing her collarbones.  
"You should think about cutting your hair." She moved closer and ran her hand over the braid. I gasped and pulled it over my shoulder.  
"That is crossing lines. No one touches my hair." She put her hands up and backed away.  
"You could fight better with short hair and when you shower, your hair is wet for like three days afterwards." She folded her hands together. "How long does it take you to brush it?" I turned away, defensive.  
"It doesn't matter. My hair is fine the way it is." She sighed.  
"I won't bother you about it again. Just think about it." She left me alone in between the stacks of books. I pushed my braid back over my shoulder where it fell all the way down to the bottom of my spine.  
"Lacey!" Cassandra caught sight of me as she was running past the shelves. She shuffled up to me and linked her arm with mine. "Flynn wants to see us in the annex." I let her drag me along, trying my hardest to ignore her shouting thoughts. I liked her the most of everyone here and didn't want to betray her trust.  
"Ah, perfect. Everyone is here." Flynn smiled, lines appearing next to his eyes. He rested his hand on Eve's shoulder and I noticed a couple suitcases behind them. "Eve and I have a special mission. We will be gone for a while and we need you to stay here and continue business as usual." Eve nodded.  
"We are not leaving you to twiddle your thumbs." She handed us each a letter printed on gold paper.   
"An invitation?" Ezekiel questioned.  
"Arthur Purtura was a rich man who loved to collect rare items. That invitation is to the party they are hosting in the honor of his memory at his mansion. After the party, his collection is going to be donated to museums around the world. This is our one chance to get in there and make sure no magical artifacts get donated." Flynn explained, using his hands to talk along with his words. "Oh, it's a black tie event so please make yourselves look presentable. You are representing the Metropolitan Public Library." He smiled before turning to Eve.  
"We'll be back in a couple months at the latest." She said before they picked up their suitcases and walked through the back door.  
"That wasn't cryptic or anything." Stone said sarcastically, looking down at his invitation. I looked down at my own, heaving a sigh.  
"I don't own anything worthy of a black tie event." I laughed softly with my words. Cassandra gasped.  
"We can go shopping. The budget allows for certain expenses every month and I'm sure there's room for it." She looked so excited, I couldn't say no.  
"Then let's go." I smiled back at her and she grabbed her purse.  
"The party is tomorrow so we have time to get our dresses and to get our nails done. We can also look for jewelry to wear." She was just about bouncing up and down.  
"I thought you were a science type girl. I didn't know you were this into shopping." She laughed.  
"When you live with boys, there are certain things you start to miss." She looked at Jenkins. "Jenkins, give us a door to a place where we can buy fancy clothes." He nodded and went over to the globe.  
"You should come out in a store in Chicago. Have fun." He smiled deviously. "The boys here are going to get suits in London." Cassandra and I both laughed at the expressions on their faces before walking through the door.  
"I don't think I've ever been in a store like this." I breathed. Everything glittered and I feared I would infect anything I touched.  
"I've never been to a party like the one we're going to go to but I've done my fair share of undercover." Cassandra was gazing at the dresses around us. I saw her eyes sweep over a blush pink gown.   
"You should try that one on." I encouraged her. She smiled at me and took it off the rack.  
"I will but first we need to find you one or two." I let my gaze linger a long silver one covered in sequins and Cassandra pulled it off the rack and shoved it in my arms along with a simple black one.  
"I'm done." I heard her voice before she came out of the only available dressing room. The dress had a high neckline but her arms were bare and you could see just a sliver of the sides of her breasts. The modesty fit her personality to a tee. The skirts had ruffles of different lengths so it was wide like a ballgown but lighter than one. I could feel my own smile stretching my lips.  
"It's perfect for you." It fit everything about her. She smiled.  
"I'm going to get this one. Let me change back and then you can try on yours." She changed quickly and let me into the dressing room. I put on the black one first and cringed at the way it hung off of me. It made my curvy, hourglass figure look like a box and drowned my supple chest.  
"I'm not even going to show you this one because it looks awful." I heard her laugh through the door and I quickly took off the hideous dress. I pulled on the silver one and gasped. The spaghetti straps crossed in the back but it was also backless, the material covering me at the bottom of my back. It had a v-neck that showed off a fair share of cleavage and the material was tight, clinging to my curves. I ran a hand over the shiny material, marvelling at the way it perfectly fit me.  
"Oh my goodness! You need to get that one." Cassandra gushed over the dress. I laughed and changed back into my regular clothes before we went to pay for them. Our next appointment was for our nails. Cassandra talked my ear off all afternoon, prying me about my past and my childhood.  
"I can't wait to get our hair done tomorrow." Cassandra looked like she was about to start floating. I smiled at her.  
"I'm just glad that you and I are friends, I don't know what I would have done if we hated each other." She nudged me with her elbow as we both laughed.


	6. Chapter 5

I watched the hair stylist twist Cassandra's hair in every direction. Her bright red hair ended up in a bun at the nap of her neck with a couple of curls framing her face. My own hair ended up with half twisted back together and the rest curled, tumbling down my back. She was smiling as we paid and went back to the library to get ready. I allowed her to do my makeup with a silver touch to it, so my whole face sparkled, with a deep red lip to match. She did her eye makeup dark but painted her lips a nude color to match her dress.  
"You look gorgeous." I gushed over her, dress and all, as she twirled, her nude heels peeking out under her dress. I had on a pair of black pumps but you couldn't see them due to the length of the dress.  
"So do you." She eyed my hair. "I've never seen you with your hair down. You always wear it in a braid." I looked away.  
"We should probably get going if we want to get there in time." She nodded and followed me down the hall to the elevator. "The guys are already at the limo?" I asked, invitation in hand.  
"They are. We can descend the steps and watch them drool, like in the movies." I laughed as we walked through the empty library. All the patrons had gone home for the night. I stopped us as we neared the doors. The sky glittered with stars and the city was lit up with artificial light.  
"Now let's go." I smoothed down her skirts and let her walk a little ahead of me so I could see the look on Stone's face when he saw her. I stopped behind the doors and watched her descend the stone steps. Jake's eyes glowed and his jaw went slack. She kept her head down in embarrassment at the attention. I breathed in and pushed through the doors, the sounds of the city flooding my ears. Ezekiel glanced up from his phone and stopped, his eyes glued to my glittering dress. My heels clicked on the cement and I had to concentrate on my steps so I wouldn't fall down the stairs.  
"You both look incredible." Stone said, blatantly staring at Cassie, when I finally reached them. He opened the door of the limo and let her inside first before following her.  
"Stone's right. You look amazing." I blushed at Ezekiel's words.  
"Thank you." I replied, softly, before climbing into the limo with him behind me. We were all smiles as the limo drove to the mansion where the auction and gala was being held.   
"I've never ridden in a limo before." Cassandra was gazing at the sparkling lights of the city through the darkened windows. I laughed a little and she looked at me, her smile widening.  
"Me neither. I never went to prom or anything while I was in high school and I haven't had the most glamorous lifestyle." Cassandra inhaled sharply.  
"Finally, someone I can relate to. Ezekiel and Jacob didn't have exactly normal lives but they were more normal than mine." We both laughed together while the guys made confused faces. I leaned back in the seat across from Cassie and Stone, noticing where his hand fell loosely upon her hip.  
"We need to make sure we don't look suspicious. Each guest is allowed a plus one and four people with invitations to this gala would look weird going in together as a group. So I am Cassandra's plus one and Ezekiel is Lacey's." Stone said, Cassie gazing at him with loving eyes.  
"Finally, the women have the plus ones. Usually it's the other way around." I laid a hand across my stomach in contentment.   
"Looks like we're almost there." Ezekiel looked up at the mansion just outside of the city. Glittering dresses and dashing tuxedos spotted the elegant staircase leading up to the thick wooden doors. Stone got out before Cassie and helped her down with one hand in her own and the other gripping her waist. She beamed at him in adoration and they waited for us just a few feet away from the limo. Ezekiel exited the limo and held out a hand to help me down.  
"Thanks." I was glad for the layer of makeup to hide my blush. Without even turning to the other two, I said, "Go on ahead. You know the plan." Cassie nodded and leaned into Stone, who had an arm wrapped around her waist. I waved goodbye to our driver and turned towards the mansion, jumping when Ezekiel pulled me to him with an arm circling my waist. "What are you doing?" I asked through my teeth. He just smiled down at me, as if I had said something funny.  
"I'm your date, remember." I shuddered at his whispered voice in my ear, flashing back to my dream the night before. My dream featuring him and a bed.  
"Right." I showed my invitation to the hostess at the door and she ushered us in, a fake smile plastered on her face. The foyer was truly grand, with twin staircases twisting up the walls on either side and a magnificent chandelier sparkling high above us. Very few people lingered here, most veering to the right, towards the room where the auction was being held, and the rest heading straight to the main hall, where the festivities were happening. Stone and Cassie had gone to the right to investigate some of the objects while Ezekiel and I got to join the party.  
"Champagne?" I smiled at the waiter holding a tray towards me and removed two glasses, handing one to Ezekiel.  
"We're on a job." He whispered next to my ear. I clinked out glasses together, taking a sip from mine.  
"We'll blend in better if we drink." He glanced down at his glass and sighed before finally taking a sip.  
"I am not carrying you out if you get drunk." His face held a smile but his tone held a threat.  
"Lucky for you, I can't get drunk. Part of the magic gene." I winked at him, taking another drink. We mingled among the other guests, laughing and flirting to cover our facade. I enjoyed quite a few glasses of champagne while Jones had to stop after two.  
"How do you think Stone and Cassie are doing?" He asked me, as we swayed among other couples on the dance floor. An alarm sounded in my head, the exact kind of thing I told Cassie to do to alert me if they needed help.  
"Not good. We need to go find them." We looked around before quietly sneaking into the kitchen. We tucked ourselves into the small space where they stored empty boxes while men in dark suits walked past.  
"I can't believe we have to deal with these people again. When will they learn to stop interfering with Brotherhood business?" A tall man with shiny black hair commented as he walked past us.  
"The Serpent Brotherhood." Ezekiel whispered.  
"They're the bad guys, right?" I asked. He nodded.  
"Really bad guys. We defeated them once before but it seems they've reformed." One of them turned towards out hiding spot. One sweep of his mind was all it took to know he had heard us.  
"Just go with it." I pleaded to Jones. He looked confused but before he could say anything, I swung my leg over him so I was straddling his and slammed my lips onto his.  
"Hey!" I huffed and turned my head just slightly, blocking the man from seeing Ezekiel's face.  
"We're sort of busy. What do you need?" I feigned irritation. The man grunted.  
"Sorry to bother you." I dragged my lips over Ezekiel's jaw until I was sure the man had left. I turned to make sure no one was there before getting up and pulling him with me. I laughed as his face entered the light.  
"What?" I giggled before covering my mouth with my fist.  
"Nothing." He just gave me a bored look.   
"We really need to get moving." I nodded, gathering my skirt in my hands and we began running in the direction the thugs had been going.  
"Wait." I stopped and leaned against a wall, pulling off my heels, nearly moaning as my flat feet hit the cold floor. "Better." Cassie and Jones were being tied to chairs when we found them. Ezekiel started forward but stopped when I held him back, handing him my shoes.  
"Oh, hey guys." I slurred my speech as I entered the room, slouching as if I had too much to drink. "I didn't see you downstairs and my date said to look for you up here." The thugs moved towards me.   
"Lady, you're drunk. You need to leave." One of them said. I looped an arm over his shoulder, laughing too loudly. Too fast for him to even register, I had my legs looped around his neck, using my body weight to throw him to the ground. The other three ran towards me. I managed to snap the neck of one, cringing at the audible crack. Another received a chop to the throat and kick to the sternum. I finished him off with an elbow to the temple. The last one went down like a sack of potatoes after a kick between his legs and a blow to his spine.  
"Holy crap." Ezekiel still stood in the doorway with my shoes.  
"You could come help me untie them." I started on Cassie.  
"Right." He rushed over and untied Stone, dropping my shoes on the floor. Stone got up and rubbed his wrists before scanning Ezekiel's face.  
"So while we were getting tied up and threatened, you two somehow found the time to make out." His voice held a teasing tone and a ghost of a smile appeared on his mouth.  
"How did you know that?" Jones was amazed. Cassie gestured to her own face.  
"You got a little lipstick." A little was being polite. It was smeared across his lips and over his jaw. I knew my own was smeared across my lips but I didn't have a care.  
"Did you get the artifacts?" I asked. Stone pulled a necklace and ring out of his pockets. I didn't want to know how they worked, I just wanted to get them back to the library. "Someone call up Jenkins and get a door. I need to collapse in bed."


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut warning

"Can we talk?" My hair was still wrapped in a towel from my shower and I was wearing a pair of cotton shorts and a grey tanktop. Ezekiel stood in the doorway to my room, located across the hall from his. We decided since my sole purpose was to protect him from danger, that should include when he's sleeping so he allowed me use of his apartment in the upper levels of the public library.  
"About what?" I sat on my bad and unwrapped my hair, letting it tumble around my shoulders in loose, wet waves. He coughed awkwardly before entering the room, still standing.  
"About the kiss earlier." I furrowed my eyebrows.  
"What about it?" I was confused.  
"There's something I have to confess." He took a deep breath. "I've read all of your books. I actually own all of them. Both series. When Cassandra and Stone started dating, I needed an excuse to be away from them so I asked the library to give me a book to read. It gave me yours. I fell in love with the world you created and I started picturing the main character as you, from your picture on the back." He was blushing slightly. "I even started crushing on you a little. So that kiss. It didn't mean nothing to me. It meant everything." His brown eyes were wide, vulnerable.  
"I have a confession too." I sighed and already felt my face begin to burn. "I had a dream about you last night." He started.  
"That's not so bad." He sat down on the bed next to me.  
"It wasn't a normal dream." My face was burning. "It-um-well, in it, we-uh-we may have crossed a line that I don't know should be crossed." He looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on him.  
"Oh." His eyes widened. "Oh!" He smiled at me. "That's nothing to be embarrassed about." I rolled my eyes.  
"Anyways. That kiss. It meant everything to me too. I didn't take it lightly. I knew what it meant to me. It was the only way to save your life." I smiled warmly at him, coiling my magic inside of myself so I would stay out of his head.  
"So what do we do now?" His accent had me melting.  
"This." I leaned into him, meeting his lips with mine, softly this time. I felt his hand rest on my bare thigh and the other came up to cup my cheek. My hands didn't lie idle either, both tangling in his silky hair. He pulled me into his lap and leaned back until he was lying flat on the bed. He pulled away just long enough to say, "How about revisiting your dream from last night?" I nodded and groaned as his hands skimmed my sides and came to rest on my ass.  
"I would be more than okay with that." I rolled my hips, his arousal hitting just the right spot. "I just have to warn you." I pulled away from him and sat up, his hands still resting on my hips. "I'm into some pretty niche things when it comes to this." He smirked at me and squeezed my hips, thrusting up with his own to gain momentum and flip us over. His hand wrapped around my throat and squeezed slightly, just enough to slow bloodflow to my brain. He leaned down to whisper in my ear.  
"Me too." I fought back a moan as he gripped my earlobe in between his teeth and pulled. My eyes snapped open when he climbed off of me and stood back. "I don't want to start anything until we have a safe word."  
"Sunflower." I blurted the first word that came to mind. He raised and eyebrow but grinned.   
"Sunflower it is." His smile fell and his eyes hardened. "Take off your clothes." The authority in his voice had heat gathering between my legs. I smirked and stood, standing inches from him.  
"Why don't you do that yourself?" I tilted my head to the side and gauged his reaction. His eyes darkened as he looked down at me.  
"Take your clothes off." He repeated. I chewed on my bottom lip.  
"Make. Me." He grabbed my arms suddenly and pinned them together behind me, tying my wrists together with a piece of cloth I didn't see in his hands. He tied them tightly together, so it was almost painful before ripping the front of my shirt, my nipples hardening as they were exposed to the cold air. I gasped at his roughness as he gave my shorts the same treatment, the tatters of cloth falling to the floor. He pushed me back onto the bed, wedging himself in between my legs.  
"I don't want to hear a noise out of that pretty mouth of yours." I swallowed as he kneeled, kissing up the inside of my thighs. My arms struggled against the bonds as he grew closer to the place I so desperately needed him. I bit my bottom lip hard to keep from whimpering as he passed over it to plant kisses on the opposite thigh. My eyes rolled back in my head when he finally made contact where I wanted him. He flattened his tongue, licking up my slit before latching his lips onto my clit. My shoulders ached from trying to move my hands and my fingers scratched at the sheets underneath me. Ezekiel pushed my legs even further apart, ignoring how much they shook.  
"Please."I whsipered. His mouth stopped its assault on my most sensitive parts and his fingers tightened on my thighs.  
"I said no noises. If you can't listen then I don't think you deserve this." He leaned over me and ground his pelvis into my own, letting me feel his desire.  
"If I don't make noise then you can't hear how amazing you make me feel." I moaned. He smiled down at me before pulling away. I heard the rusting of clothes before he hovered over me again, his face inches from mine.  
"You do make a good point." My eyes flicked down to his lips and like reading my mind he connected them, his hand skimming my side before digging underneath me to untie my wrists. My hands immediately buried in his hair, holding his face to my own.   
"I want to be yours." I whispered to him reaching down to stroke him. He groaned, the sound music in my ears.   
"Then I shall be." He positioned himself at my entrance before pushing forward, burying himself to the hilt. My nails dug into his shoulders and my mouth fell open in ecstasy. "Are you alright?" He asked, concern filling his eyes.   
"Better than alright." I smiled up at him and he grinned at me before he began moving his hips. I moaned, meeting every thrust with one of my own.  
"You feel amazing." He groaned burying his head in my neck, sucking on the skin there. All I could do was groan in his ear. One of his hands snuck in between us to rub circles on my clit. I threw my head back and raked my fingers down his back.  
"Oh, God. I'm gonna come." I dug my fingers into his shoulderblades as a wave of pleasure crashed through me. Ezekiel followed soon after, his warmth pumping into me. We lay together afterward, his strong arms holding me close to him.  
"Damn, I think I might have a problem." I tilted my head up to look at him.   
"What's that?"   
"I'm probably going to fall for you." I smiled and kissed him, slowly.  
"That doesn't sound like a problem to me." 

"Good morning!" Cassandra chirped as we got in the elevator. I couldn't stop glancing at Ezekiel the whole ride down. Stone had a wary eye on us.  
"You guys did it, didn't you?" I smiled, matching Ezekiel's.   
"Maybe." I glanced at the ceiling and I heard him whisper.  
"Definitely." I rolled my eyes as they fist bumped.  
"Nice." It took everything in me not to smack his shoulder. The doors opened and Cassandra told me she needed my help in the tree room.   
"I'll go ask Jenkins if he needs anything from us today." Jones leaned down and pecked my lips before heading off in the opposite direction from us.  
"Tell me all about it." She said, once they were out of earshot. I told her the story, leaving out many details and enduring her squeals the whole time.  
"I knew this was gonna happen eventually. He had a massive crush on you." I laughed.  
"So I heard." She nudged me with her elbow.  
"I'm glad he found you. He needed someone. Now I won't have to worry about him anymore." The trees around us were peaceful as we talked until about lunchtime.  
"Do you want to help me cook lunch? The Library has a massive kitchen." She wasn't lying. Everything was the size of an industrial kitchen. I helped her whip up two steaming pans of chicken enchiladas.  
"That smells amazing." I closed my eyes as Ezekiel placed a kiss to my temple. I smiled at him and we both stopped when we noticed Cassie and Stone looking at us.  
"So that's it? You guys are just, together now? After one night?" Stone was confused. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Ezekiel.  
"We talked and decided it would be best. We're both adults. We can both handle working together if things go badly." Jacob snorted.  
"You're an adult? You barely look 21." I stopped moving. I was waiting for this moment. When someone would notice.  
"I'm 25." I breathed. Jake just snorted again.  
"Yeah, right." He glanced at me. "I mean. I believe you. Some people just look young." I shook my head.  
"I was 21 when my magic started flowing. I was 21 when I stopped aging." I whispered the last part. Silverware hit ceramic plates.  
"You mean, you're immortal?" Ezekiel questioned.  
"I think so. I haven't aged. I can't get drunk." I swallowed. "This is probably too much information, but I also haven't gotten my period."  
"That sounds amazing." Cassie said, around a mouthful of food. The boys still stared at me, making me squirm. "It's not a big deal that you're immortal. We just have to find a way to make Ezekiel immortal so you can be together forever." I blushed.  
"Thanks, Cassie." She just smiled.  
"There's a plant that's said to originate in Sumer that they say can grant immortality. You two could go and find it. Cassie and I can handle whatever the clipping book sends our way." Stone said, shoving a bite into his mouth.  
"What even is Sumer?" I asked, finally getting to eat what I cooked.  
"Early civilization in southern Iraq. The plant lies 'under the sea' and looks like a flower with thorns." Stone explained.  
"We can leave after lunch." I smiled at Ezekiel who looked like he wanted to throw up. I reached out and held his hand in my own. "Being immortal isn't so bad. I only have to eat if I really want to and I don't have any embarrassing body functions."  
"Thanks, Lacey." I kissed his cheek before turning back to my meal, still aware of the anxiety running through his head. I reached out with tendrils of calm and let them wash over his mind. I noticed him visibly relax. "I think I'll like being immortal. After all, I wouldn't want future generations to miss out on the awesomeness of Ezekiel Jones." I rolled my eyes as he smiled at me.


	8. Chapter 7

"This is pointless." I rolled my eyes as Ezekiel voiced his opinion about this whole excursion once again. I heard him huff as a branch whipped him in the face. "This is the third oasis we've been to in this stupid desert and we haven't even seen the stupid thorn flower." I stopped and turned around to face him, a bored look settling over my features. "It's been almost a week and nothing. Maybe I'm just meant to grow old and die." Anger flared through me.  
"I am your guardian. My job is to keep you alive. I am not going to sit idly by and watch you die. What are you doing?" He was pulling me to him by the straps on my backpack. I still had a confused look on my face when he kissed me and pulled back, a grin splitting his features.  
"I love it when you get angry. It makes you look feisty." I rolled my eyes.  
"I am feisty and you are going to see that my bite is so much more than my bark one of these days if you keep it up." His eyebrows raised at that.  
"I would love to feel your bite." I pushed away from him after he winked at me. I sighed when I saw that the sun was beginning its descent.  
"Maybe we should set up camp for the night." I set my pack down and began pulling out the swaths of canvas for our very small tent. He sat down and leaned against a tree with his arms folded across his chest, just watching me do all the work. "You could help me, ya know." He smirked at me.  
"Ezekiel Jones doesn't get his hands dirty." He inspected his fingernails. "It interferes with my thieving." I rolled my eyes.  
"Ezekiel Jones can sleep in the outdoors then instead of in the tent next to me." I returned his smirk and continued hammering a stake into the ground.  
"Why don't you just use your magic to put it up?" I sighed, letting my braid fall over my shoulder.  
"Because it's not an unlimited store. I can run out of magic. I would rather use it for something useful." He shook his head at me but still held his smile.  
"What's more useful than using it to prevent manual labor?" I smirked to myself.  
"This." Just a second of concentration was all it took for my magic to give Ezekiel a shove to the side and land him in the dirt. I heard his huff of frustration before finishing with the stake I was working on. I stood back and let my fingers dance through the air as I let my magic work for me, lifting the top of the tent and tying ropes to nearby trees to hold it up.  
"Why not just do that to begin with?" I sighed and turned around.  
"I have been working my whole life. I don't want to rely on magic simply because it's easy." He just rolled his eyes at me.  
"Why not?" I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger.  
"Maybe I can't put up with you for eternity." With those words, he was up and directly in front of me in a matter of seconds.  
"You should be so lucky." He planted a short kiss on my forehead. "Maybe we should sleep." I hummed.  
"Maybe." I winked at him as I tied my pack up in the tree and removed my shirt, leaving me in only a sports' bra. I slid into the small tent and pulled the very thin sheet over me. I laughed at Ezekiel's grunt of disappointment at seeing me almost sleeping as he laid down next to me. I could feel his arm touching my back because the space was so small. I rolled over and laid my head on his chest, propping my leg over his.  
"I can't wait to get back to the library. I need a shower." I snorted.  
"Very much." I laughed as he smacked my leg gently and his arm around my shoulders squeezed.  
"You don't exactly smell like a basket of roses either." I smiled against his bare chest and closed my eyes.  
"I know." Was the last thing I said before I drifted off into the wonderful land of sleep.  
"We have been all over this stupid oasis and found nothing." I rolled my eyes for the hundredth time as Ezekiel complained for the hundredth time. I clenched my fist around the tree I was leaning on.  
"There is a little lake up ahead. I'm going to use my magic to see what's underneath." I explained slowly, trying to reign in my anger. I stood at the edge of the water and closed my eyes, letting my magic slide underneath the surface. It hissed and recoiled at the thorns tipped in magic. I bit my lip and clenched my fists as I forced my magic to wrap around it and tug it from the mud. I let out a grunt of frustration when the roots wouldn't give.  
"Here." I thrust the dripping plant in front of Ezekiel's face. His mouth dropped open and then he looked at me.  
"What happened to you?" He stood and cupped my elbows, inspecting me. I was soaking wet from head to toe and covered in little bite marks from the little devil fish in the pond. Sweat was dripping in my wounds, causing little stings of pain.  
"My job." I shoved the plant against his chest, ignoring the pricks from the thorns in my fingers before stomping through the dense jungle back to where we had left the tent up.  
"You can make force fields, I don't understand how you got cut." I whirled on him, blood dripping down my cheek.  
"The lake is full of magic. The preventing kind of magic. I couldn't summon a force field and those stupid little fish. Their bites are full of poison, preventing me from healing so fast." I rolled my eyes and put my hand on my hip, jutting it out. "But by all means, sit on your ass some more." I turned and flicked my hair over my shoulder.  
"Lace-" I turned and glared at him. He stopped talking at the fire in my eyes. I started packing the tent, shoving the folds of fabric into my bag. I threw it over my shoulder and grabbed Ezekiel's arm. I could sense his confusion before we appeared in the village closest to the oasis. I dragged him over the door with a faint glow around it and we stumbled into the library.  
"Welcome back." Ezekiel was still cradling that stupid plant to his chest while I just threw my bag to the ground and stormed upstairs to the enormous kitchen and crashed to the floor behind the giant island. The tears stung the cuts on my face but I didn't care as I cradled my knees to my chest and buried my face in my arms. I didn't even have the energy to swat away the warm arms that surrounded me.  
"I'm sorry, Lacey." I sniffed and wiped my nose, looking up at him.  
"Maybe I don't belong here. I keep pushing myself, hoping I'll start opening up and it's just not happening." He shushed me and stood, scooping me in his arms to sit me on the counter.  
"If you don't belong here, then neither do I. We're both different than the others. We're younger than them, for starters. They don't quite understand us." He wiped away my tears, covering his hands in blood. "Let's go take a bath in the bathing room and then come back to cook up this plant." I nodded, letting him carry me to the giant room, steam choking me. He was gentle as he peeled off my clothes, then his own and carried me into the enormous marble tub.  
"I don't deserve you." He whispered into my hair as his hands swept over my back, scrubbing the grime from me. I lifted my head from his shoulder and turned around to straddle him, kissing him fiercely.  
"Don't ever say that." I whispered before showing him just how much he deserved me.


	9. Chapter 8

"Is he still feeling the effects of the plant?" I nodded slowly as I entered the main room of the annex. Jenkins sighed sympathetically and looked back down at his book. Cassandra and Jacob were whispering to each other in the stacks of books up the curved staircase. Ezekiel had begrudgingly eaten the immortality pastry I had made him but the plant had made him sick. Immortality can most often cause sickness.  
"I think the clipping book has a mission for you." Jenkins gestured towards the, now open, book. Jacob and Cassie both started down the short staircase when they heard this. I was the first to begin reading from it.  
"One woman in this town was reported to have been transformed into a beautiful woman before she was run over in her own driveway by her neighbor." I read the first article and quickly skimmed through the rest. "So they all become beautiful, blame it on their facial cream before having super bad luck." I summarized what we were all reading.  
"We should go and investigate this." I smiled, for the first time in two weeks.  
"I'll go see if Ezekiel can muscle through it." I turned to head up to our small apartment. He was still laying in bed, where I had left him. A sheen of sweat covered his forehead. "Hey." I said softly, kissing his forehead. He gave me a small smile, halfheartedly. "How are you feeling?" I sat down on the bed and smoothed his hair out of his face.  
"Better than the beginning but it also kind of feels like there's something snaking through my intestines." He rolled to his side and groaned from the pain.  
"The clipping book gave us a mission. I came up to see if you would be okay to come with us." I moved my hand to his shoulder where my thumb rubbed in small circles.  
"I can't even move. I haven't seen them in a week. Can you work your magic on me so I can at least get down to the annex?" I pulled my hand back.  
"I might not be able to get you back up here. Things like that drain me very quickly." He closed his eyes.  
"Please." I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning forward to touch my forehead to his. I worked my magic through his brain, blocking the nerves that were causing him pain. His sigh of relief almost made me cry. I helped him out of bed and threw his arm over my shoulders before helping him back down to the Library.  
"Ezekiel!" Cassie launched herself at him and hugged him tight while Jake just clapped him on the back.  
"We have missed you down here, Mr. Jones." Jenkins admitted. I smiled at all of them. Seeing Ezekiel this happy after weeks of misery was the least I could do for him.   
"I can't go anywhere without Lacey. She's blocking my pain." He turned his sparkling gaze on me and a blush rose to my cheeks. "We can stay here and do research for you. That way, Jenkins can focus on his work." I was beaming. Immortality looked wonderful on him. Stone and Cassie went over to the door while Ezekiel configured it to the location they needed. I smiled, even as a headache started to form right behind my left eye.  
"So we're looking for something that makes a woman beautiful and then gives them tragically bad luck. It could literally be anything from any mythology ever." I sighed and ran my hands through my hair, which was actually down today. It was down and falling past my hips in unruly waves.  
"We could still make a list to make it easier on them." He offered. I was glad he was in a good mood but I was draining quickly and it was affecting my own mood.  
"The closest thing I found was the necklace of Harmonia from Greek mythology. It allowed whoever was wearing it to stay young and beautiful but it brought misfortune to all of its owners." I read out of the book closest to me.  
"I'll call Stone and tell him." He pulled out his phone and quickly relayed the information while I allowed my head to fall onto the table, my hair pooling around me.  
"You look like you have seen better days, Miss Cal." Jenkins commented on my appearance as he entered the room. I just groaned from under my curtain of hair.  
"I'm feeling a little drained." My voice was muffled by the desk.  
"Take Mr. Jones back upstairs and give yourself a rest. This is not healthy for either of you." I pulled my head up and look at Ezekiel talking animatedly on the phone.  
"He looks so happy. I can hold on just a little bit longer." My small headache had turned into a full blown migraine and my entire body ached. Jenkins just gave me a stern look before turning away.   
"I told them. They're going to start looking for that necklace." Ezekiel now stood in front of me, a broad smile across his face.  
"Aces." I used his most common expression before slumping over on the table.  
"Are you alright?" He came around the desk to put a hand on my back. "You're skin is burning up." I waved him off.  
"I'm fine." It barely came out as a whisper before I fell sideways off of my stool. Before my eyes closed I heard him cry out as his pain hit him full force.  
I woke up next to Ezekiel in his bed. My entire body hurt and light streamed through the window from the rising sun. I attempted to sit up, failing spectacularly. Cassie opened the door quietly, holding a bowl with steam rising out of it.  
"I thought you would enjoy some oatmeal with brown sugar and apples." She whispered. I nodded and closed my eyes, a tear slipping out from under my eyelids at the movement. "I'm not saying you made a good decision, trying to hold out for that long, but I understand why you did it." The oatmeal felt good as it slid down my throat and warmed my insides.  
"I don't love him. Not yet. But what I feel for him, it's very close." I rolled my head to the side to gaze at his sleeping face as I said this. I turned back towards Cassandra before I continued talking. "I have a lot of issues to sort out but I know one thing: he is the only clear part of my vision. Everything else could be blurry but he is clear." She smiled at me.  
"Sounds an awful lot like love to me." I just sighed and laid there, sorting through all of my feelings.


End file.
